href=”http://digg.com/submit?url=http%3A//www.ismashphone.com/2010/09/things-we-love-to-hate-about-apple.html”>
We have been known to dish out a fair amount of trash-talk in the past. Some directed at the Android platform, Droid commercials, some at Sony’s new PSP campaign and most recently, a post critical of the Galaxy Tab.
Apple isn’t free from our criticism either. We feel criticism is needed where it’s due. It’s true that we tend to enjoy our Apple products, but that’s just a personal choice. They aren’t without their flaws or major annoyances. Today, we are going to tell ya about our beefs with Apple.
1) Play By Our Rules - Given, we bought an Apple product and knew how the company works, it can be a real drag to have to wait on simple features that should be in from the beginning. Multi-tasking? Wasn’t available until this year. Custom wallpapers? Wasn’t available until this year. That’s why we jailbreak, folks.
Sorry, Apple Fanboi, no 99-cent rentals for you!
2) These constant upgrades leave users behind - Okay, this is the tech world, and technology is always evolving. You have to stay ahead of the curve. The problem is that some invested users get left out. We heard comments from many Apple fans who had purchased the first generation of Apple TV, some this year. Many average consumers may not know that an Apple TV upgrade is coming, until they see highlights from the event on the evening news. Those who purchased the original Apple TV this year are now left out of the 99-cent TV show rentals and don’t get Netflix streaming. If anything, owners of the old Apple TV deserve 99-cent rentals. The only option on it is to purchase shows and fill up your hard drive with stuff you’ll probably only watch once. Unless Apple decides to surprise us, but their suggestion would probably be, “Just pony up the $100.” Sorry, but I would rather spend that $100 on TV shows. With the iOS devices, we already know that updates are always on the way. Even then, most iOS devices seem to be good for about 3 or 4 years before they begin to be phased out.
No one gets out alive…
3) Apple Wants to Control the Output of Information – Okay, this has gotten somewhat better over the last few years, until you count in the iPhone 4 fiasco. A few years back when Jason O’Grady had found an interesting bit of information about a FireWire box for GarageBand. It’s a long ugly story, but Apple filed suit against O’Grady. They tried to get information from his ISP, and Apple’s lawyers threatened them with legal action, and did everything they could to find his sources.
Eventually, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) came along and helped O’Grady. Then there is the more recent iPhone 4 mess. There are conflicting stories, but we know that the phone was reported stolen, and Jason Chen reported property damage.
This one was just too funny to pass up
4) Steve Jobs Can Be a Real Douche Sometimes – Well, this can apply to any CEO (or anyone in general), but there is no doubt that CEOs have to hurt a few people’s feelings from time-to-time to get to be top dog. Steve Jobs is reported to be a tough dude when it comes to working for him. Though he seems to have chilled out over the years. In fact, he seems to be rather pleasant these days. Which we like. Old Steve was kind of scary. However, the dude can still dish out the douchebaggery when he wants to. Sometimes, it’s a bit funny, but he’s been known to be a bit short in his emails. Our favorite example is when an iPhone user emailed him about problems they were having with their iPhone 4′s reception. Steve’s response? Don’t hold it that way.
Other websites tried to contact him about the issue and got the same sort of response “All phones have sensitive areas, just avoid holding it in this way.”
Given, the dude was probably already having major headaches because of the highly-publicized reception issues. He may have just been tired of hearing about it. Still, he probably could have just let Apple’s PR agency handle that stuff.
Sorry, third-parties, but thanks for testing out the idea!
5) Apple’s Tendency to create features that just kill off Apps – Well, we can argue that this is just the nature of the business. It’s true‚Ķit is just the nature of the business. However, it sucks for App developers who work to release a PDF reader for 99-cents, then have Apple introduce a more convenient PDF reading function directly in their device.
This is wonderful from a consumer standpoint, but it sucks for App developers. Who may actually have more limited time and resources. Still, some manage to do it better than the folks at Cupertino. Such as the developers of Pro HDR. The App has more functionality than the one included in 4.1, and it’s available to non-iPhone 4 owners as well. Apple wouldn’t even do that. In the past we’ve pointed out Apps that become obsolete with an iOS update: Here. The best case scenario is that the App developers make enough to justify their creation of the App and can go on to create more interesting Apps.
Nice when you have portability in mind, but man it can become a pain with other computers and monitors
6) Proprietary, proprietary, proprietary! - You buy yourself a Mac Mini, and realize that the little port behind it is a display port. Luckily, it comes with the converter that will let you connect your monitor to the mini display port that comes with Apple devices. Want a second monitor on any of your Macs? You need a second one of those mini displayport converter doohickeys. How about if you have a PC but like Apple’s monitors? Sorry, it has a proprietary connection. This is reasonable on a laptop, and we will let it slide on a Mac Mini because we can understand that those computers are about smaller size. But the Mac Pro? Come on, Apple, that sucker’s not getting any more portable.
In the end…
No company is perfect, and many have done things in the past that make us question their motives. Still, we are technology fans. We want things to move forward, not backward. Locking things down and keeping things proprietary sometimes feels like a step back for us. Finally, we will tell you who our true favorites are. It’s those who work to create jailbreaks that let us use our devices the way we like to use them, and release it to the public free of charge. Without Apple’s restrictions and limiting policies.
Accessories & Apps: Beta Testers Wanted
iOS Firmware/IPSW Download Guide
Legacy iTunes Download Archive
App Store Top Charts
iPhone and Android Resale Value Charts
USA iPhone Carrier Plans Compared
Complete iPhone Jailbreaking Guide 
Complete iPhone Specification Matrix 
Wah Wah Wah, I hate when techies complain about Apple not using full size ports on computers that are SMALLER THAN THE PORTS. If the article writer looked at the picture above, they would notice that a full DVI port would be bigger than the actual laptop. And for only $10 or $15 they will sell you the plug that converts it to DVI anyways ( I have one )
And that is how they suck money out of you idiot ! What’s up with microsim shit ? who needed ?
Don’t you guys understand?
The whole business model of Apple is based on incremental upgrade costs.
That’s why everything is upgraded so often and functionality is eliminated from the upgraded hardware.
Understand this already, Apple customers make emotional purchasing decisions, not neccesarily functional ones. This is exactly -why- Apple can get away with their incremental upgrade selling business model.
They make a design blueprint for a product, then strip away 70% of its functionality and -sell- that functionality incrementally back to the customer over a period of months.
Why else do you think the iPhone got bluetooth in 2008 to send pictures to one and other? Or a 5 mp camera way too late? Or why the iPad only recently got multitasking or still has no camera, etc. Or the Apple TV.
Only Apple buyers will accept this because of how shiny their products are, if it were any other manufacturing company it’s customers would have departed long ago.
The funniest thing is, Apple customers will even defend it! I remember vehement Apple fanboys back in 2004 or whenever it was saying (in response to mobile mp3 players that had come on the market which could play video), “why on earth would I want to play video or games on a music player”.
The same way they defend the (unneccesary) lack of functionality in todays Apple products.
#1 thing I hate about Apple: it’s users. seriously, apple makes some nice kit, but I just can’t stand to be associated with the douchebags that champion the brand at every opportunity.
Q: how do you know somebody is an Apple fan?
A: they’ll tell you. a lot.
wouldn’t be so bad if so much of what they rant on about is patently false or based on misunderstanding.
“How about if you have a PC but like Apple’s monitors? Sorry, it has a proprietary connection.”
Not exactly proprietary. It’s an industry standard, just like USB, Firewire, and 802.11 (which Apple was first to adopt before anyone else as well).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort
I’m with you on all but #5 and #6.
On #5, like any other OS/platform it’s a tough situation. Apple’s approval process makes it more interesting. In the early days there were a number of apps held back with no official reason given by Apple, then the next OS release had similar functionality. People bitched about that, so Apple started letting apps through in some cases and then releasing the feature anyways. People now bitch about that. It’s really a no-win if you as the platform provider want to offer a feature standard that third party developers have already brought to your platform. No matter how long the feature’s been in development internally it ends up looking like the big guy is trying to squash the small developer.
I don’t really have any opinion on how this could be handled better other than just telling third party developers that if a feature they’re adding seems like it should have been on the phone out of the box they should prepare for it to be there some day.
On #6, other than the power plug on laptops please find me a proprietary connector on ANY Intel mac. Before you go off on Mini DisplayPort as you do in this post, both Toshiba and HP also use MiniDP on their laptops and AMD has six of them on the Radeon 5870 Eyefinity 6 edition. It’s not common, but then again neither is DisplayPort at the moment.
Pretty much the only thing I can complain about connector-wise is that I think they should have bundled a MiniDP->DVI adapter with the new machines until DP becomes more available. They did the same in the past with DVI->VGA even long past the time when VGA monitors should have been considered relics of the CRT cannonball age. That said, with the adapters being easily found for cheap all over the internet it’s a minor bitch at best.
Agreed. Great point
i totally agree, but #5 “Apple’s Tendency to create features that just kill off Apps” is a bit strange – of course every new ios-software-feature will “kill” some apps. but thats in the nature of os-upgrades….
I love my mac book pro. I miss some of the small bits of software that don’t run on macs like web CEO. But I love the jesters on the track pad so much. And iMovies, iTunes, iphoto are just so much better than the windows free versions.
“…until they see highlights from the event on the evening news.”
This is half my problem with Apple. Every time Apple or Jobs farts it gets wall-to-wall coverage equal to or greater than any Brangelina or Lady Gaga phenom. And for FREE. What other company can get that much constant press (except when it’s news that paints Apple in a bad light) ?! Don’t give me the sh*t that they somehow deserve it, just because the product is so good. If that were the case, why wouldn’t the press be talking about the Tesla roadster or latest Ferrari? (Those are in comparably affordable price ranges to the average American as an ipad).
“This is reasonable on a laptop, and we will let it slide on a Mac Mini because we can understand that those computers are about smaller size. But the Mac Pro? Come on, Apple, that sucker’s not getting any more portable.”